The countdown has started for National Congress of CGIL. The 15th Congress of the CGIL will take place in Rimini from 18 to XNUMX March, which is not only the most important trade union, but also – and above all in the current times – the association with the largest number of members. The title chosen for this nineteenth assembly is "Work creates the future". In addition to the secretary Maurizio Landini, who will speak during the first day, in the presence of other illustrious guests from the political and institutional world: the governor of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini, the secretaries of Cisl and Uil, the secretary of the Anpi, the main center-left party leaders, among including the new secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein the president of the CEI but above all the president of the Council Giorgia Meloni. This time the CGIL Congress will really be full house, with a very intense schedule of speeches.
Will the CGIL Congress dissolve ambiguities on Ukraine?
What kind of congress will the XIX Congress of the CGIL be? From the work program and the invited guests, the discussion seems more aimed at presenting and supporting the line of the CGIL than at tackling a real debate. Perhaps, precisely because of the lengthy preparation in local-based congresses, the assembly discussion will be relegated to a total of 5 hours in four days. The rest of the time will be for guests, including the Spanish minister Yolanda Diaz, the bearer of the labor market reform and the restrictive discipline introduced by the Sanchez government on fixed-term contracts. Will you also talk about the reform of individual dismissals which makes it easier for Spain to resort to open-ended contracts? Hard to tell. Finally, a certain ambiguity regarding the position in the Russia-Ukraine war also transpires in the choice to invite Gianfranco Pagliarulo, president of the Anpi, who sided with Putin, but not to reserve any space for the Ukrainian resistance.
But let's see the calendar of the National Congress of the CGIL.
The calendar of the National Congress of the CGIL
According to the CGIL calendar, Wednesday March 15 the Congress opens with Gianfranco Pagliarulo, president of Anpi; Esther Lynch, CES general secretary; Luigi Sbarra and PierPaolo Bombardieri, general secretaries of Cisl and Uil; Antonio Lisboa, CSI vice president; Oliver Ropke, president of the EESC workers' group; Gilbert F. Houngbo, oil general manager; Giovanni Maria Flick, president emeritus of the Constitutional Court; don Luigi Ciotti, president of Libera.
Thursday 16 March, however, it will be the turn of the leaders of the opposition forces who, after the election of Elly Schlein at the head of the Democratic Party, are closer to the CGIL and to the traditional link between the Democratic Party and the union: Schlein (PD), Giuseppe Conte (M5S ), Carlo Calenda (Action), Nicola Fratoianni (Italian Left) and Landini himself will participate in a round table. The conclusions and the vote on the final document are scheduled for Saturday 18.
Giorgia Meloni at the CGIL Congress: appointment on Friday 17
In the day of Friday 17 the spotlights will be on the premier who will speak at 12, whose management team seems to have liked his choice. "A sign of respect and recognition of the role of an organization that represents millions of people", Landini said as he presented the Congress to the press and added his hope, "that what has not been achieved so far will be determined: the announced reforms must be object of comparison and negotiation". Starting from tax reform which "is far from the proposal that we have been making for four years such as CGIL, CISL, UIL", explained the secretary, lamenting "the absence of a comparison also on pensions". It will be a great challenge: if he gets the opening of a negotiation from the premier, Landini will claim it as a success. Otherwise he will call a general strike. But Giorgia Meloni, evidently, does not want to leave too much left wing, especially in front of an audience of almost a thousand delegates representing 5,2 million members, half working and half retired.
On Friday, close to Meloni's intervention, they will also take the field Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio, Linda Laura Sabbadini, director of ISTAT e Matthew Maria Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI).
Why is the presence of Giorgia Meloni important?
The fact that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has agreed to participate in the CGIL congress is important not only because the premier will speak about a center-right government at the congress of the historic trade union of the Italian left. But also because after almost 30 years, an Italian prime minister returns to the stage of the CGIL national congress: in the 18 congresses celebrated by the red union in its history, only three premiers have spoken: John Spadolini (1981) Bettino Craxi (1986) and Romano Prodi (1996). In 2010 the then head of government Silvio Berlusconi sent the undersecretary to the presidency of the council Gianni Letta, while Matteo Renzi (in 2014) and Giuseppe Conte (in 2019) declined the invitation.
Plenty of room for international themes
Great space will also be given to international topics. 120 foreign guests from over 50 countries will arrive in Rimini. The Congress will also hear the testimony of an Iranian woman, while there is still no news of a space dedicated to the Ukrainian resistance. A place of honor will be reserved for the Spanish Minister of Labour, Yolanda Diaz, protagonist of the great reform phase underway in his country, which for months has been cited as the way out of what is defined, by the political and trade union left, as "rampant precariousness".
The congress will close Saturday March 18 when the votes of Landini's re-election for the second term as secretary will be counted.
